The Clock Strikes Twelve
by Scintillating Golden Leaves
Summary: When he kisses her, she can't breathe and that's that; she doesn't care about how terribly cliché it sounds, it's the truth.
1. One of Five

**Title:** The Clock Strikes Twelve  
><strong>Summary:<strong> "They're like a jack-in-the-box; they pop up when you least expect them to."  
><strong>Character(s):<strong> Hope C., Arthur T.  
><strong>Genre:<strong> Angst/General ::AU-ish::  
><strong>Rating:<strong> K+  
><strong>Fandom:<strong>39 Clues

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><p><strong>#01 ::Ring::<strong>

The ring shines brightly against the sun as it is snatched from her finger, as its new owner turns it against them, using it as a weapon of destruction instead of peace.

**#02 ::Hero::**

He pushes her behind him, faces the knife and expects a quick and final blow- instead he hears the sickening crunch of a cracked skull and her shaky voice, "you can't always play the hero."

**#03 ::Memory::**

She grips his arm tightly as they both realize there is no way out, that they are doomed to die at the hands of a Vesper when suddenly- "do you remember the first time we met?" he whispers softly, and she holds on to that memory during the final moments of her life.

**#04 ::Box::**

"They're like a jack-in-the-box; they pop up when you least expect them to."

**#05 ::Run::**

He can't believe how stupid she is, coming back for him and for the clues, and he knows he is being hypocritical but as the fire blazes around them, as the roof begins to collapse, he screams at her to _run, just get out of here Hope, run!_

**#06 ::Hurricane::**

"The weather channel said it would be sunny today," he protests as her eyes flash dangerously; she is scarier than the storm raging outside.

**#07 ::Wings::**

They are both silent as they watch the baby eagles bravely take to the sky, contemplating their futures.

**#08 ::Cold::**

"I'm not cold," she mutters, but he only smirks and drapes his jacket over her shivering shoulders.

**#09 ::Red::**

It is all she sees as she stumbles towards his broken body; pools of dark red rapidly colonizing the infinite asphalt and all she can think is_ no, it can't be happening, this is just a dream, just a nightmare-_but the paramedics still come, they still come and cart him away and all she can do is stare numbly as she is led gently to another ambulance.

**#10 ::Drink::**

She raises an eyebrow at him as she sees his drink clashing against her own, but he only shrugs and says, "I only drink coke."

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><p><strong>DISCLAIMER:<strong> **The prompts are taken from the LiveJournal community, 1sentence. This is set No. 3, Gamma.**

**A/N:** Will be a five-part thing. Five-shot? Do they exist? The world may never know.


	2. Two of Five

**Title:** The Clock Strikes Twelve  
><strong>Summary:<strong> The final flames flicker resolutely in the night as she clutches onto his arm, and he takes his final breath- the lights wane and all is still.  
><strong>Character(s):<strong> Hope C., Arthur T.  
><strong>Genre:<strong> Angst/General ::AU-ish::  
><strong>Rating:<strong> K+  
><strong>Fandom:<strong>39 Clues

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><p><strong><strong>#11 ::Midnight::<br>****  
>And they countdown to the final seconds of the year, both fully understanding it may be their last.<p>

**#12 ::Temptation::**

"Don't accept it Hope," she can hear his panicked voice warn her, but the promises the Vesper had whispered -of safety, of a danger-free life, of her family, of him- ring brazenly in her ears, and she takes a deep breath before stepping forwards.

**#13 ::View::**

To him, it is simple- the Cahills are weaklings who cannot control the state of Hawaii if their lives depended on it; but nothin is ever simple, and of course she has to waltz right into his life and change his perspectives on things.

**#14 ::Music::**

She stares at him, mouth hanging open and completely bewildered as he raises an eyebrow and smirks, "come on, Hope, me playing the piano isn't that hard to believe."

**#15 ::Silk::**

"That's our clue," Cora Wizard's piercing voice cuts through the air and Hope flinches as Arthur drops the piece of silk.  
><strong><strong><br>#16 ::Cover::  
><strong>**  
>She makes a face at his sunglasses and ridiculous baseball cap, muttering, "dude, you're not famous and I doubt anyone will recognize you with, or without the glasses."<p>

**#17 ::Promise::**

He promises her everything as she sits, huddled next to him, sobbing her heart out into his shirt; that new C.O.D. game, a freshly baked strawberry pie, her mother's safety, her sister's forgiveness- he promises her that they are safe, all of them, from the mass murder occuring around them.

**#18 ::Dream::**

She dreams of fields of never-ending grass stretched out the horizon, of her family standing next to her, all of them, unbroken, of a world free of Vespers, Gideon's ring and serum- before she wakes up to her squabbling cousins and realizes that it is not realistic, it will not happen anytime soon.  
><strong><strong><br>#19 ::Candle::****

The final flames flicker resolutely in the night as she clutches onto his arm, and he takes his final breath- the lights wane and all is still.

**#20 ::Talent::**

"It must be a talent," he remarks as he casually observes the seething woman and the bucket of spilled water beside her, "being able to annoy you like this and easily pull pranks."

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><p><strong>DISCLAIMER:<strong> **The prompts are taken from the LiveJournal community, 1sentence. This is set No. 3, Gamma.**

**A/N:** I think some of these were run-ons. Writing an effective sentence for each is harder than I thought. Also, as of now, **I am returning reviews.** This is to promote a project I plan on doing during the summer. A little early, but hey, it's better to get a head start.

-Golden


	3. Three of Five

**Title:** The Clock Strikes Twelve  
><strong>Summary:<strong> The fire in her eyes are gone; in its place, a dull hollowness rests and she stares back at him, taking shallow and short breaths, ones that have never made him feel so scared.  
><strong>Character(s):<strong> Hope C., Arthur T.  
><strong>Genre:<strong> Angst/General ::AU-ish::  
><strong>Rating:<strong> K+  
><strong>Fandom:<strong>39 Clues

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><p><strong><strong>#21 ::Silence::<br>****  
>It is loud, extremely so, and he does not <em>understand<em> because silence is not supposed to be _loud_, yet it is, deafening, roaring in his ears as he waits in the monotonous little room with only her unconscious body and an apathetically steady beep for company.

**#22 ::Journey::**

He smiles tightly and she glares back with vulnerable tears stinging in her eyes, feeling completely betrayed as he whispers, "life's a tough journey,"- and he takes the knife for her.

**#23 ::Fire::**

The fire in her eyes are gone; in its place, a dull hollowness rests and she stares back at him, taking shallow and short breaths, ones that have never made him feel so scared.

**#24 ::Strength::**

"Be brave, be strong," she hisses as she hugs him quickly one last time, and they depart for their separate missions.

**#25 ::Mask::**

They are captured and tortured in the most inhuman ways; they scream for each other, they hurt both emotionally and physically- but once the pain momentarily stops, they put on a mask of indifference and no one can break them.

**#26 ::Ice::**

When they first meet, his soul is ice, cold and parsimonious- she makes up her mind to change that and though they get along as well as a T-Rex and a vegetarian do, pride and victory swell inside of her the first time she makes him smile.

**#27 ::Fall::**

"Sorry," he says lightly to the scowling girl, "I think it's too late; you see, I've already fallen for you."

**#28 ::Forgotten::**

"When we die, I want people to remember us for who we were, what we did; I never want to be gone, a ghost of someone's memory, and I never ever want to be compared to anyone from the future."

**#29 ::Dance::**

They shiver as they unsheathe their daggers and face their opponents in defense position, ready to pounce at any given moment, because they know; they are fully aware of the dangerous game, the dance of the blades they chose to participate in.

**#30 ::Body::**

"I might not be there in flesh, but I'm there in spirit," she grins as she leans closer to the webcam and cocks her eyebrow.

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><p><strong>DISCLAIMER:<strong> **The prompts are taken from the LiveJournal community, 1sentence. This is set No. 3, Gamma.**

**A/N: **I'm sorry, because I'm not good with multi-chapter stories. Ah, you could say my stamina for them is low.

As of now, **I am returning reviews.** I'm sorry that I haven't returned some of your reviews. Been busy. I promise to get to that this week, when things have settled down a bit. Pinky swear.

Two more chapters, and then this is finished. :)

-Golden


	4. Four of Five

**Title:** The Clock Strikes Twelve  
><strong>Summary:<strong> Her breathing is shallow and quick, her eyes dart around the room frantically across the sea of people, and her face is deathly pale; he crosses the distance between them and envelopes her in his arms, knowing she is about to start hyperventilating, that the crowd is too much for her to handle right now.  
><strong>Character(s):<strong> Hope C., Arthur T.  
><strong>Genre:<strong> Angst/General ::AU-ish::  
><strong>Rating:<strong> K+  
><strong>Fandom:<strong>39 Clues

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><p><strong><strong><strong>#31 ::Sacred::<strong>****

He blinks up at her, confused, "what's sacred geometry?" and the only thing he gets is a roll of the eye and a flippant, "it's something complex that archaeologists use, I don't even get it myself."

**#32 ::Farewells::**

"Parting is such sweet sorrow, but we will meet again," he sings as he waltzes away from her, laughing all the while.

**#33 ::World::**

Vesper Five smirks at them, "the world is mine, at my mercy, at my feet, and so are you," and they try not to shiver at those words, but it is all in vain.

**#34 ::Formal::**

"Huh," he comments as she walks towards him in a midnight blue dress, "who would thought you could pull off a dress-" she cuts him off with a light punch, "-but you _do_ look pretty."

**#35 ::Fever::**

"I'm not sick," he insists, brushing off her hand which lay concerned on his forehead, "I'm just really, really hot-" her eyes widen and she struggles to contain a snort, "-and not like that!"

**#36 ::Laugh::**

He watches her as she guffaws, the tilt of her head, the way she slaps her knee and bends down- he would be laughing with her if he were not on the ground with a yellow banana peel next to his foot.

**#37 ::Lies::**

He forces a grin and nods cheerfully in her direction," of course it's alright- everything's going to be okay and it's all because I have a plan," and though she still looks suspicious, she nods and let's him go-

he doesn't have a plan.

**#38 ::Forever::**

"I don't," she snaps impatiently as he get down on one knee, "have forever Arthur and I'd appreciate it if you'd just say what you need too-" her mouth falls when he opens a white velvet box and stutters the words out.

**#39 ::Overwhelmed::**

Her breathing is shallow and quick, her eyes dart around the room frantically across the sea of people, and her face is deathly pale; he crosses the distance between them and envelopes her in his arms, knowing she is about to start hyperventilating, that the crowd is too much for her to handle right now.

**#40 ::Whisper::**

At night she hears the willow branches tap softly on her window, and when insomnia consumes her, she stands on her balcony with closed eyes, listening to the past whispers whilst a tear trickles down her cheek.

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><p><strong><strong>DISCLAIMER:<strong> **The prompts are taken from the LiveJournal community, 1sentence. This is set No. 3, Gamma.****

**A/N: **Just to clarify, in the last AU (#40 Whisper), Arthur is dead.

Not my best, I got lazy. I'm leaving for a trip later on so I thought I'd update.

One more chapter. This is the first non one/two-shot I have ever [almost] completed. Haha.


	5. Five of Five

**Title:** The Clock Strikes Twelve  
><strong>Summary:<strong> When he kisses her, she can't breathe and that's that; she doesn't care about how terribly cliché it sounds, it's the truth.  
><strong>Character(s):<strong> Hope C., Arthur T.  
><strong>Genre:<strong> Angst/General ::AU-ish::  
><strong>Rating:<strong> K+  
><strong>Fandom:<strong>39 Clues

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><p><strong><strong>#41 ::Wait::<strong>**

He took a deep breath, muttering, "I can't put it off any longer," and at her questioning glance, looks her straight it the eye and says fiercely, "the truth is, Hope, I'm a Vesper who is hopelessly in love with you and will you please, _please _marry me?"

**#42 ::Talk::**

"Yeah, and oil is one of the clues, completely, and you can use it for cooking and loads of other things too like cooking, oh, wait, I already said that, and energy, yeah, energy and making your cars move and if you strike a match and throw it into gasoline it explodes and goes boom and did you know you could adopt a penguin at the zoo- what? Of course I'm not distracting you, I like carrying out conversations with Vespers!"

**#43 ::Search::**

She slumps down, her shoulders sagging as she mutters, "it's useless, Arthur, the ring's gone, the Vesper's have taken it and there's nothing we can do about it."

**#44 ::Hope::**

He takes her chin and tilts it up a little, forcing her to look at him and murmurs softly, "it's fine, Hope; as long as you're here, there's always a chance that it'll get better," and he kisses her.

**#45 ::Eclipse::**

They look up at the stars, at the glowing red moon, glad to have ditched sleep to watch this spectacular solstice eclipse.

**#46 ::Gravity::**

"I wish I could fly," she sighs wistfully as she looks up at the heavens but shrieks when he pokes her side, tickling her sensitive spots and realizes if gravity were their enemy, they would not be chained to this world together.

**#47 ::Highway::**

He rolls his eyes, "Hope, chill, it's just the highway, it's not like Vespers are waiting to strike at any moment-" he cuts himself off, realizing that this could very well be the case.

**#48 ::Unknown::**

They stare at the cave's entrance, from which an ominous feeling seems to have steamed out; it's always the unknown, always, whatever they did and it forever would be.

**#49 ::Lock::**

"ARTHUR JOSIAH TRENT!" she roars when she sees his hand halfway in the cookie jar, "and you wonder why I keep my candy under lock and key!"

**#50 ::Breathe::**

When he kisses her, she can't breathe and that's that; she doesn't care about how terribly cliché it sounds, it's the truth.

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><p><em><strong>`~`Fin`~`<strong>_

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><p><em><em>**A/N:** And that's it. Thanks for reading! :)


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